A worker kept on rolling annual fixed-term contracts for years is told the contract simply 'expired' and a new contractor will bring its own people — as if the years created no rights
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The Situation
What They Said
“You were only on a contract — it expired, so there is nothing you can do. And the new contractor is bringing its own people.”
This is said to a worker — often a low earner like a cleaner — who has been kept on yearly fixed-term contracts for many years doing the same ongoing work, then told the contract has simply 'expired', with a new service provider taking over. It treats the label 'fixed-term contract' as if it erases years of continuous service and the rights that come with it.
The Fallacy
Form Over Substance
The argument relies on the label of the contract ('fixed-term', 'expired') instead of the reality of the working relationship. Labour law in many jurisdictions looks at substance, not form: where an employer renews a fixed-term contract again and again for work that is really permanent, the law can treat the worker as having a reasonable expectation of renewal — and, for a low earner, as a permanent employee. Calling it a mere 'expiry' hides a decision that the law may treat as a dismissal.
What the Law Says
Your Legal Foundation
Ley de Contrato de Trabajo 20.744
art. 90 de la Ley de Contrato de Trabajo — Continuous service presumption
“The execution of successive fixed-term contracts that exceed the requirements provided in subsection b) of this article converts the contract into one of indefinite duration.”
If you have been employed under successive fixed-term contracts for many years doing the same ongoing work, and the tasks do not justify the fixed-term nature under subsection b), the law converts your contract into an indefinite one. Therefore, the expiration of the latest fixed-term contract does not automatically end your employment; you have the rights of a permanent employee, including protection against unjustified dismissal.
What Scripture Says
God's Word on This
Deuteronomy 24:14-15 (NET)
“You must not oppress a lowly and poor servant, whether one of your Israelite brothers or one of the resident foreigners who are living in your land and villages. You must pay his wage that very day before the sun sets, for he is poor and his life depends on it.”
Scripture singles out the low-paid, dependent worker for special protection — precisely the person most easily treated as disposable. A cleaner kept on for years and then discarded on a technicality is the very 'lowly and poor servant' the law of God tells those in power not to oppress.
James 5:4 (NET)
“Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.”
God hears the cry of workers who are cheated of what they are owed. Withholding from someone the security and dignity their years of labour have earned is not a neutral business decision in Scripture's eyes — it is an injustice that is seen and answered.
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You Know the Law — But Do You Know What to Say?
Reading your rights is one thing. Using them under pressure — calmly, correctly, in the right words — is what actually protects you. Members get the scripted rebuttal for this exact situation: what to say first, what to say if they push back, the tone to use, and the constitutional provision to cite. Practise out loud with audio until it's automatic.